KDE picks Kim Kardashian to promote next release

The KDE Desktop Project has hit upon the idea of having the American socialite Kim Kardashian promote its next release.

KDE is one of the two major desktops for Linux and most of its applications have names beginning with "K". Kardashian manages to keep her name in the headlines all the time, most recently by releasing a sex tape which led to the calling off of her marriage to American sports personality, Reggie Bush.

KDE chief Matthias Ettrich told a press conference in Hamburg: "It's not often that we come across such a perfect fit. Where would you find a prominent person whose name and surname both begin with K? She's the perfect choice to promote KDE. She will give us exposure like nobody else can."

"As our web page says, we have a strong focus on finding innovative solutions to old and new problems and creating a vibrant atmosphere open for experimentation," Ettrich said. "What could be more innovative than getting this big K to promote KDE?"

Ettrich said the project had approached Kardashian and received a favourable response.

The KDE move has not gone unnoticed by its competitor, the GNOME Desktop Project and the GNOME Foundation is now thinking of going one better and releasing its own sex tape. The idea came up at the latest board meeting and was discussed for about an hour - much longer than any technical ideas - but sources are reluctant to name the person who raised (no pun intended) the idea.

The GNOME chief executive, Stormy Peters, is understood to be opposed to the idea but, as she has been unable to come up with any other idea to raise the project's profile, has said she will stay out of the way if the idea is adopted. "After all this is open source and if someone wants to come up with an idea that is allied to forking, then I think I should not be standing in the way," Peters was quoted as saying. "However, if it is being done, we should do it for the next release."

Plenty of GNOME developers have put up their hands to star in the tape.

FREE WHITEPAPER - RISKS OF MOVING DATABASES TO VMWARE

VMware changed the rules about the server resources required to keep a database responding

It's now more difficult for DBAs to see interaction between the database and server resources

This whitepaper highlights the key differences between performance management between physical and virtual servers, and maps out the five most common trouble spots when moving production databases to VMware

A professional journalist with decades of experience, Sam for nine years used DOS and then Windows, which led him to start experimenting with GNU/Linux in 1998. Since then he has written widely about the use of both free and open source software, and the people behind the code. His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.